This invention broadly relates to dispensers, and more particularly, this invention relates to a regulator and a dispenser for paper towels.
One of the most common household items is the ubiquitous paper towel roll. Rolls of paper towels are commonly found in the kitchen as well as other work areas of the home, to say nothing of commercial uses. A roll of paper towels is typically between 11 and 12 inches in width and consists of a roll of several hundred towels separated by perforations. The roll is wound on a cardboard core.
It is possible that the roll can be left loose on a counter and picked up, and the desired number of towels torn off the roll manually. More common, however, is the mounting of the roll of paper towels in a simple dispenser which has a pair of spaced apart end pieces which clamp over the hollow core and allow the user to grip the leading towel on the roll and pull a length of paper toweling off the roll, after which they are torn off at a perforation by a sudden hard jerk or by holding the towels on either side of a perforation with both hands and tearing at the perforation. Most such dispensers are inexpensive and, in fact, cheaply made. They grip the roll with sufficient pressure to hold it in place, but loosely enough to allow for easy rolling. In fact, the rolling is so easy that a pull on the leading towel almost inevitably causes the unrolling of a greater length of toweling than the user desires. Then, when the toweling is jerked to tear it off the roll, the roll continues to turn, resulting in a length of paper toweling dangling from the holder. The user is then forced to manually turn the roll back in the other direction to re-wind the length of towels.
Alternatively, the user pulls the desired length of towels off the roll with one hand and then holds the roll stationary with the other hand while tearing off the desired length. This is extremely inconvenient when the user is working at some task and may have his hands wet or otherwise occupied.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a regulator for a paper towel dispenser that would allow the easy dispensing of a desired length of paper towels and the easy tearing off of the desired length of paper towels with only one hand. Similarly, the need exists for a complete dispenser which embodies such a regulator.